


Light, Warmth and Comfort

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Affection, Caretaking, Caring, Cold Weather, Cuddling & Snuggling, Distrust, Explanations, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff and Mush, Getting to Know Each Other, Happy Ending, Help, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, It's really cold where I live right now so have some fluff about warming up, Loneliness, Mid-Canon, Multiple Selves, New Arrivals, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Divorce, Sleep Deprivation, Suspicions, Sweaters, Uncertainty, Unconventional Families, Winter, compassion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 19:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13795116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: A cold spell has struck. The nights are getting colder and Chase, who's used to having someone by his side to keep him warm, finds himself shivering alone. He intends to change that before his heart gets any number.





	Light, Warmth and Comfort

Chase was a Septic through and through—upbeat, optimistic, welcoming to every new face who crossed his path—but he was willing to admit that as he’d grown, as he’d experienced the life laid out for him, he’d been tempered. He couldn’t trust everyone. Stacy had made sure he got that message loud and clear by ignoring every one that he left on her machine. If that hadn’t been enough, his altercations with Anti had been.

“You have to be more careful,” Marvin begged him constantly, gripping his shoulders with stern, brotherly authority. “What if we aren’t there to watch your back? You’ve been around for a good long while now, but there are still threats in places that you can’t even imagine.”

This warning was why Chase hesitated, ever so slightly, to welcome Jameson Jackson. The newborn Ego was like them in so many ways! He was bristling with the same childlike wonder, the amazement and the excited fear, the naïve hope and the bashful uncertainty that they’d _all_ had when they first manifested. Chase could envision his own entry into Egos Central so vividly in Jameson’s eyes.

He was different, however, in one important respect: Jameson’s birth was tainted. He was pinned down by Anti as soon as he arrived. Did that make him a threat or just another victim? Chase couldn’t tell.

Even so, the longer Jameson stayed, the more Chase could feel his fatherly instincts riling up on his behalf. Frankly, JJ was adorable, in part because he was vulnerable. He was easily startled, easily overlooked, and there were so many things he didn’t understand. He was curious and clueless in all of the sweetest ways and he’d already won the others over! It was honestly Schneep’s growing friendship with Jameson that caused Chase to pay more attention to him—that and the increasingly cold nights.

A few months had passed since JJ’s arrival and winter had arrived fast. Schneep had spent it fussing over them as much as he could, tracking down blankets and sweaters and exclaiming worriedly that their heater was substandard. Chase couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he watched him tug a sweater over Jameson’s prim and proper vest, much to the youngest Ego’s gratitude. As he huddled further into the warm sweater, even his speech slides flickered and quivered with the cold as he offered his thanks. Schneep patted his shoulders comfortingly and advised him to keep it as long as he needed.

“Chase, you come with me,” the doctor ordered as he passed. “You need sweater too! I have one in the closet to fit on you.”

“Why d’you do that, bro?” Chase asked as he wandered in Schneep’s wake. Schneep made a questioning noise. “Y’know…fawn on JJ like that? He’s a gentleman. He can take care of himself!”

“He is only a little one!” Schneep protested incredulously as he swung the closet open and began rifling through. “Have you not seen how badly he sleeps? His body is weak still, Chase Brody; he doesn’t have the strength we do! The cold gets to us littler ones more than Jackie and Marvin, yes?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Chase concurred pensively, automatically holding up his arms for Schneep to pull the sweater over his head. “Huh. I guess you did baby me last winter, didn’t you?”

“Egos Central is no place for cold bodies!” Schneep declared confidently, to which Chase huffed lightly.

 _Unless Anti has any say_ , he was tempted to reply. He’d never let the words leave his lips; it would puncture Schneep’s self-assurance like thin wax paper.

Perhaps it was an effect of his conversation with Schneep, but that night definitely seemed much colder than those of the past week. The chill wove its way into his sleep clothes and his blankets, forcing him to curl into such a tight ball that his knees, elbows and ribs kept digging into each other as he shivered.

At this rate, he definitely wasn’t going to get any sleep, he decided, prying bleary eyes open. The first thing he saw was the empty space beside him; his heart and the side of his head ached simultaneously. Stacy was always so warm when she was tucked against his side. Was she cold tonight? Was she tucked against another man?

 _No_ , _no, no_. He had to throw those thoughts out of his mind as soon as they rose. If he started crying, the tears might freeze on his cheeks. Without a second thought, he flung aside his blankets and rose, letting the icy floor burn his feet to distract him. He let his feet take him wherever they wanted to go—but he couldn’t help being rather surprised when they stopped in front of Jameson’s room.

JJ had replaced the shiny, modern chrome door handle with one made of black wrought iron. Somehow it suited him, Chase mused. Curiosity overtaking him, he couldn’t help using two fingers to push the door open just a tiny bit and poke his head in to see if Jameson was faring any better than he was when it came to sleep.

Sure enough, Jameson was in bed, but by the light of his sepia aura, Chase could see the blankets trembling. He could almost fool himself into hearing the younger Ego’s chattering teeth to go with it, he realized.

He was moving before thinking, slipping into the room and leaving the door open just a little as he closed the distance in a few long strides. Jameson startled awake from his painfully light doze as soon as Chase tugged on his blankets, but even as he flailed to sit up, he made no sound.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay,” Chase shushed him anyway, his own voice low as he slid into the empty spot against Jameson’s side. “Don’t mind, do you, bro? Might, uh, be a little uncomfortable—or unconventional or w-whatever—but I figure it’s better than both of us freezing toni…”

Before he could even finish, Jameson had uncurled from his own tight ball and was burrowing against his chest, clutching clumsy fingers into his shirt to keep him where he was. Chase blinked a few times, taken aback, but gradually relaxed, wrapping an arm around the younger Ego’s back. Already he could feel some of the cold thawing out of his chest, replaced by an affection previously reserved for no one but his children. Though it startled him, he couldn’t resist its pull; without thinking, he began drawing careful, comforting circles between the younger Ego’s shoulder blades, as he used to when his babies suffered nightmares.

To his delight, though he couldn’t hear the sound, he could feel JJ take a sigh of contentment and relief because of it. He offered one of his own in return just before settling in and drifting off.

He didn’t know it yet, but the two of them would stay this way for the rest of the winter.

**Author's Note:**

> There really aren't enough stories about Chase and Jameson here, I swear --


End file.
